CYCLISTS WHO are fearful of taking to the roads were offered encouragement and training in scenic settings in Cork at the weekend.
Cork City Council offered free “Cycle in the City” courses at Fitzgerald’s Park in the city both yesterday and on Saturday.
Members of the public were encouraged to attend 90-minute workshops run by West Cork company Cycle Sense. The workshops were designed to assist people who wish to cycle more but do not feel confident in traffic.
Professional trainer Ruth Bullough said they offered guidelines on safety and accessories as well as practical on the ground training.
“It helps their confidence and it gives them guidelines to maximise safety. It was a really positive event. We could only take eight people at a time and every session was completely booked out.
“We try to teach cyclists how to read the road and to read certain situations.”
One of the participants in Saturday mornings workshop Angie Amoedo, who is from Spain but living in Ballincollig, Co Cork, said she attended in order to boost her confidence in relation to cycling in Cork city centre.
Angie has lived in Ireland for 14 years and cycles around the city for her errands but says she has never felt fully at ease cycling in the main thoroughfares of Cork.
“I don’t feel comfortable cycling in town. The lanes can be chaotic. The roads are not as good as in cities such as Barcelona or Madrid. They have more bicycle lanes and commuter bikes. There is just a whole infrastructure of bikes. It would be great if Cork could get bicycles set in place that people could just use.”
She said she was pleased that Cork City Council was promoting cycling initiatives because there was tremendous scope in a city of its relatively modest size for more reliance on cycling.
Public health nurse Audrey Burkley from Blackrock who also took part in one of the workshops said she felt far more knowledgeable about coping with traffic in junctions having participated in the session. She primarily cycles for leisure and says she loves getting out for a spin around the city at weekends.
“I found the whole workshop very beneficial. It definitely made me more competent. We were taught exactly how to cope with traffic and to manage junctions, parked cars and lorries.
“I use the car for work but I love getting out on the bike. The workshop was a good idea.”
The Cork City Cycling Strategy was formally adopted in 2004 to increase bike use while reducing accidents involving cyclists.
Substantial investment is under way in the city’s cycle network and facilities. Since then initiatives have included bike swap shops, Bike to Work week and Cork Cycling Arts Festival which was held in July last year. This was Cork’s first ever arts festival to celebrate the bicycle culture in the city and involved an art exhibition, a public meeting on cycling and movie nights.